Muslim Pupils’ Educational Experiences in England and Scotland (MPEEES) Working Paper 2 Educational Policy and Structures in Scotland Elisabet Weedon, Gillean McCluskey, Sheila Riddell and Linda Ahlgren August 2010 1 Content Page Introduction 3 Section 1: Historical Context (of school system) 3 Section 2: Legal and Constitutional Framework 5 Section 3: School Structure: 9 Main features School choice Types of schools Ethnic backgrounds of pupils in Scottish schools Section 4: Curriculum 14 Formal curriculum Informal curriculum Section 5: Assessment, attendance and outcomes 17 Assessment and attainment Destinations of leavers Attendance and absence Exclusions Qualifications in the working age population by ethnicity Section 6: Teacher education and the teaching workforce 24 Characteristics of the teaching workforce Teacher education Section 7: Differences and similarities between the 28 Scottish and the English education system References 31 2 Introduction This report provides a brief overview of the education system in Scotland and explains the emergence of the current system. Its main purpose is to provide information to inform a research study examining experiences and attainment of Muslim pupils. The report therefore refers to matters such as school choice, aspects of the curriculum of relevance to pupils from non mainstream backgrounds, statistics on pupils including attainment and the profile of the teacher workforce. Whilst the main focus of this report is not on religious education, the role that the Christian churches have played in developing the current system is explained. Religious and moral education (RME) remains a compulsory subject in school and the Christian focus is still dominant within that. For this reason we include a brief overview of this subject area as well as an overview of the general curriculum. Section 1: Historical context This section provides a brief outline of development of the educational system and the role of the church in its development. Early development of the educational system and the emergence of denominational schools The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 forms the basis for the modern Scottish education system. However, prior to this the church, especially post Reformation, had promoted the development of the education system; ‘it was the means by which the essential precepts of religious beliefs were to be instilled in the young’ (Devine, 2006: 91). During this period there was a marked distinction between Lowland and Highland Scotland and also between the burghs and rural areas. In the Lowlands a large number of parishes had a school by 1696, though there was variation between different areas and in larger parishes with only one school there was unequal access. In the Highlands the parishes were large and the population Gaelic speaking, therefore the provision of schools teaching in English was more problematic. There was some development of parish schools but also of charity schools. Catholicism has lingered longer in some of these areas and to some extent the charity schools were developed in order to counter the teachings of Roman Catholic missionaries (Smout, 1985). An Act of the Privy Council and further Acts of The Scottish Parliament in 1633 and 1696 provided a legal basis for the provision of ‘the parish school’. In principle this covered both towns and rural areas. The impact of the parish school was such that Scotland had one of the highest literacy rates in Europe (though it was not unique). There was a strong gender difference in the literacy rate in the mid 18th century estimated at 65% amongst males and only 25%-30% among females. The financing of the parish school depended on landowners who were legally bound to provide a schoolhouse and pay the basic salary of the teacher. However, this was supplemented by fees paid by parents. The responsibility both for the quality of the schoolmaster and the teaching within the school lay with the church, through the minister and the presbytery. At this time the church was the custodian not only of the parish schools but also of aspects of the judicial system. The school system in towns differed from the rural areas and the schools that emerged were not necessarily provided by the church. There were schools in the burghs during medieval times with the main function to teach Latin in preparation for university entrance. To this was later added subjects that reflected growing commercial interests. These schools were later, towards the end of the 18th century consolidated into Academies. There was no statutory obligation supporting the burgh schools (Devine, 2006). There was therefore a divide between rural and urban provision with the church providing in rural parishes and town councils supporting schools in urban areas. In addition, there was a number of private schools both in rural and urban areas with different functions, e.g. to train young men for commercial life and young women for marriage. From the 1830s there was state aid for education. In 1846 this aid was reorganised. It was provided to schools that followed the curricular Code laid down by the state and there was no discrimination between denominations. The new Free Church (Church of Scotland) engaged in 3 the development of an educational programme for all; the Episcopalian and Roman Catholic denominations developed provision for its own adherents and became voluntary schools because they did not accept the state control imposed by the curricular Code (Fitzpatrick, 2003). The development of Roman Catholic schools occurred mainly in the west of Scotland as a result of 19th century immigration from Ireland. Following the 1872 Act the only compulsory subject in school was religion and, in effect, in the non-denominational schools this could be equated to the Presbyterian religion (Anderson, 2003). However, whilst the religion taught within the non- denominational schools was Presbyterian, the church had to relinquish control of the schools and hand that over to the newly created school boards. The main change in education occurred through the Act of 1872 which created a universal state school system and mixed gender education became the norm. Education was made compulsory from the age of five to thirteen. The school leaving age was raised to fourteen in 1883 but pupils could leave earlier if they had mastered the three ‘Rs’ (reading, writing and arithmetic). In 1901 this changed and all pupils had to stay until they were fourteen. Following a time of religious and economic unrest in Scotland, the Education (Scotland) Act 1918 was introduced, aiming to discourage religious intolerance. It provided state funding for the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian schools which had previously been voluntary schools. The new Act allowed Roman Catholic schools to retain the control over the religious education and approval of teachers (Anderson, 2003). The new Act also handed over control of the non-denominational schools to ad hoc education authorities. In 1929 the responsibility for schools was transferred to all-purpose local authorities. Since then, the local authorities have been responsible for all state funded schools although Roman Catholic schools retain important controls over certain aspects of Roman Catholic schools. Right of representation on local authority education committees is enshrined in legislation for the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic church. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, Section 124 states that when appointments are made to a committee with the purpose of: • advising the authority on any matter relating to the discharge of their functions as an education authority; or • discharging any of those functions of the authority on their behalf then at least half of those appointed must be members of the authority and that the committee should include the following three people: • one representative of the Church of Scotland, nominated in such a manner as may be determined by the General Assembly of the Church; • in the case of the education authority for each area other than Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, and Western Isles, one representative of the Roman Catholic Church, nominated in such a manner as may be determined by the Scottish Hierarchy of the Church; and • one person or, in the case of the education authorities for Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and Western Isles, two persons in the selection of whom the authority shall have regard (taking account of the representation of churches under paragraphs (a) and (b) above) to the comparative strength within their area of all the churches and denominational bodies having duly constituted charges or other regularly appointed places of worship there. Religious education in schools from the 1970s The Millar Report (SED, 1972) which reported on moral and religious education in non-Roman Catholic schools, noted that 78% of non-denominational schools used the Bible as the basis for its teaching of religion. This important Report advocated the use of both a more child-centred approach to teaching religion and also recognition of the social function of religion in imbuing children with moral ethical values in keeping with Christianity. The Report emphasised the different tasks that the school, the home and the church had in a child’s religious development (Conroy, 2003). As a consequence of the Millar Report, the Religious Education curriculum became the responsibility of a statutory body for the first time (the Consultative Committee on the Curriculum) and a teaching qualification for Religious Education was developed in 1974. The subject subsequently became examinable at ‘Ordinary Grade’ in 1978 when it also became part of 4 the core curriculum in secondary schools. A ‘Higher Grade’ qualification followed in 1986. This system remained in place until the introduction of the National Guidelines for ages 5-14 in1992. These guidelines are currently being replaced by a Curriculum for Excellence (discussed in detail in Section 4). The Scottish Central Committee on Religious Education (SCCORE) offered this definition at the time: ‘RE in schools is concerned with understanding the experience of human beings in their search for meaning, value and purpose in life.